English and Galician in the Middle Ages - Publicaciones ...

English and Galician in the Middle Ages:
A Sociohistorical Survey
Begoña Crespo García
tact. In fact, these social ‘contact groups’ may have spread
bilingualism among their members. As Claiborne (1990: 99)
points out:
From the point of view of language, the most notable effect of the
Norman Conquest was to convert England, almost overnight, into
a bilingual country. The upper classes spoke French; before long
they were joined by those of the English middle and lower classes
who had regular dealings with them: tradesmen, manor ‘foremen’
and the like. French was always essential to anyone with ambitions
of rising in the social scale. The rest of the population continued
speaking English at home and among themselves, though many of
them doubtless learned to understand French if not speak it.
The second factor which guaranteed the survival of English after
the conquest is related to the existence of literature written
in English. The use of the vernacular for writings of a historical,
homiletic or didactic character continued after the coming
of the Normans. Middle English works such as Layamon’s
Brut, The Owl and the Nightingale, Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight and Ancrene Riwle prove the existence of an audience
who could be addressed in English at the end of the 12 th century.
Moreover, some Anglo-Latin historians such as William
of Malmesbury and Henry of Huntingdon narrate stories in
English about Saxon kings that they claim to have heard from
the peasantry. These works prove that English was also used
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